Dáil debates

Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Environmental Protection Agency (Emergency Electricity Generation) (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages

 

4:12 pm

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for proposing this amendment. The Climate Action Act and Low Carbon Development Act and the provisions therein are extremely important to provide for public bodies to act in a manner consistent with the latest climate action plan. This particular legislative provision was inserted on the advice of the Attorney General and reflects the language already approved by the Oireachtas under section 10 of the Development (Emergency Electricity Generation) Act 2022.

This legislation is intended to require the agency to act "in a manner consistent" with the climate action plan. It is proposed that it would do so in a practical way, having regard to the seriousness of the current situation. The provision merely provides clarity as to what will feed into the agency's decision. On a technical level, the Deputy's proposal would go further than the provisions of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 itself, which requires bodies to act "in a manner consistent" with the relevant plans and strategies, insofar as practical. By proposing to remove these words from section 3 of the Bill, the Deputy could erect a higher bar than the existing legislation and consequently increase the risk of a challenge over non-compliance with the entirety of the plans, strategies and frameworks referred to in section 13 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015. For that reason and for reasons of consistency with legislation passed by the Oireachtas, I do not propose to accept the amendment.

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